THOUGHTS OF A CHESS ADDICT

  I had 8 students playing in this tournament, as I believe that they can practice their thinking and vision skills better in a 1 hr per side game. All except 1 won trophies, which was a good result for any trainer. Here I want to give some comments on their performance: Mitchell, being the oldest in terms of age but relative young (in terms of tutelage) in my group, once again topped the list of my students' performance with a solid 5.5/7 score. His game against Alfred ,although blemished at the end to a draw, was well-conducted in accordance to his style. What I was impressed about him was the determination he set out to play each game to fully utilise his time and made generally good decisions. I am sure this will translate into another 30 rating pts thereabouts.  Adrian as usual, missed the chance to end up in the top 10 finishers not because of lack of playing strength but lack of determination. His last round game against Lew Zhi Hong started not well but he managed to ...

For students playing in the Queenstown Open,  please observe the following advice: 1  No more online games from now till Saturday 2  Revise all your opening notes. Bring them to the tournament. 3  Sleep early on Friday night. 4  You can skip Friday chess sessions at Thomson to rest ON SATURDAY 1   Starting time is 2pm. Have a good lunch. Avoid having rice for your meals, especially chicken rice. It will make you sleepy. 2   Once seated, concentrate on your own game. DO NOT LOOK WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING. 3   Try to get up from your chair once in 15-20 minutes only, not every move. 4   Record your games properly 5   Bring sandwiches on Saturday as you will need them before Round 3 starts at 630. Take your time on the clock and use it wisely! PLAY FAST, LOSE FAST. Guess your opponent's move when he's thinking. Ask when he's thinking who is better , where can your pieces go? If he moves before you finish, remember to co...

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Again, your comments on this. Should we as organisers organise more rapid events or perhaps we should organise more 1 hour events but limit that to no more than 7 a year (ie 14 weekends a year)? Out of the 16 weekends, can an average family spend about 6-8 weekends to play 3 1 hr per side tournaments that will make 21 games a year? Generally my feel is that with longer time controls, we can inject some seriousness in the play and that would make studying chess more relevant to improve upon our moves. Perhaps then, the Schools CCA Branch may take chess more seriously and add it into their Calendar of Events. What say you, parents and enthusiasts??

Often we keep ourselves busy playing tournament after tournament after tournament, never stopping to ask if there's progress made in between them. Often we do not see the games played as an oracle of our next performance. A close examination of games often reveal the very problem of our weaknesses - it gives us the direction of which areas in our game to work on. 3 of my students took part in the recently concluded ASEAN Youth International held at Nanyang Primary School. 1 scored 5.5pts in the U8 Section, while in the Girls U11 she scored 5pts. The weakest finished 4.5pts. As usual, the score means little to me while the games themselves reveal more. The chief issue seems to be clock management. This is partly due to the many rapid chess games they have played over the year. To make 40 moves in 2 hours, it takes discipline and maturity to understand that the average of 3 minutes a move should be fully utilised into searching for good moves. When a good move appears, one should loo...